After three months on my new Cannondale Six13 a couple of things have become quite apparent to me:

• I love cycling more than ever. I'm not good at this 'rest day' crap.

• That means 8000-10000 miles annually will be the norm for me.

• My lovely Six13 is getting trashed from too many days on crappy roads. No regrets there: I bought it to RIDE it, not to look at it. This despite my fairly conscientious efforts to keep it pristine. AND despite the fact that on the REALLY bad days I'm on my MTB. I just ride too much on sloppy roads. Hours and hours in the muck and mire. AND...loving it.

So I was going to refit my Ibis (which I've already paid to have refinished) Ti. Forget it. I'll miss it, but that makes no sense to me. On eBay it goes. Lovely frame by the way (57cm, 56cm top tube).

I'll wait until next September and probably buy a 2007 Six13 and make the current Cdale my 'rain' bike. That will work fine. A bit more pricey perhaps, but better in the long run. I'm hoping next year's Six13 weighs '14lbs.'. Right.

This might work better if I just hung the thing on the wall and shined track lights on it. Which is what some of the riders I run into seem interested in doing with their foo foo road bikes. Oh well. I'm hoping that by this time next year I have one Cdale that I ride on nice dry, sunny days - and one with duct tape and blood stains on it (my current bike) to ride on the crappy days. Which around here is about 1/3 of the year : ).

By the way that massive contusion I incurred in the black ice 23mph slam dunk the other day is healing nicely - and while the swelling has gone down, it's the most awesome 10" diameter black and blue mark I've ever seen. My nice Six13 got a bit scratched up too, another factor in this decision. It's hard to ride a bike all the time and keep it nice. If you do it enough it does become a contact sport. Like the NFL but without the grass or 260lb. linebackers.

I can't even imagine what will happen to me when I start racing again. I get the feeling the incredible luck I had in 150+ races over 8-9 years may run out in the very near future. Ah, what the hell. The worst injury I ever witnessed in all the horrific crashes I witnessed bike racing was a broken collarbone. Besides the way I've been riding I'm more likely crash into a friggin stop sign on a 85º*summer day : ).